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Duke Univ Med Ctr-NC

Duke

Durham, NC

NRMP
1529080R0 / 1529080A0
ACGME
0803621067

Sentiment score: 5.8 / 10

Applicants discuss Duke's interview logistics, scheduling, and interview day experiences, with mixed feedback on faculty engagement and program culture. The program is viewed as competitive and prestigious but with concerns about student matching outcomes and lack of supportive environment. Some applicants note the program is selective, fills quickly, and is considered a top-tier academic institution.

Match terms
dukeduke dermduke univduke university

Fame & Shame

2025–2026 Derm

3 entries

1. Really enjoyed my away rotation here and would highly recommend for future applicants. Faculty are predominantly women and are all really nice and there's a diverse array of subspecialty clinics. Durham is lovely with lots to do. Everyone in the department was very welcoming and nice.

1. The chair situation reflects a much greater funding issue occurring in the department. There is a lot of discontent.

2. Residents have to travel between sites in the middle of the day. Mohs exposure is not very good, residents complained about it during my rotation

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How is dukes program? are people nice there? how is it generally? everytime i look up duke on the other spreadsheet, there isnt info on it

#752026-2027 DermApr 2

afaik they just had a big issue with funding and inpatient derm that led to their chair leaving. the people are supposed to be great though

Apr 2
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very family oriented, lots of residents have kids and got the impression residents aren't as close to eachother as I would've liked in a program

Apr 4
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Definitely not a 'bad' thing though, some people prefer programs like that! Appreciate the insight

Apr 4
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who matched duke?

#34452025–2026 DermMar 22

someone from penn state apparently

Mar 22
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also one of their fellows

Mar 22
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I was just reminded: Duke residents were "time keepers" for each room so they heard our entire interview with faculty but didnt have their cameras on or make comments.

#27742025–2026 DermFeb 21

yeah that was so weird

Feb 21
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i said hi to all of them lolll

Feb 21
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yes this was honestly so strange

Feb 21
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and there were a couple who forgot to take time even when that's the reason they tell us they're there

Feb 21
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and there were a couple who forgot to take time even when that's the reason they tell us they're there

Mar 7
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based on the rank tallies it's clear this spreadsheet skews towards high tier applicants. are 1/3 of the UCSF/HARVARD/Duke interviewees really on here?

#27232025–2026 DermFeb 21

I'm more curious about Arkansas> home??

Feb 21
5

yeah lots of us low/mid tier applicants try to avoid this spreadsheet as it makes us more stressed, the high tier applicants have tons of interviews and their stress is probably more about where they are matching while for some of us, we are stressed about matching at all!

Feb 21
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we all are stressed about matching

Feb 21
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we all are stressed about matching

Mar 7
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Current residents: is there any chance of second look attendance or absence influencing rank order lists?

#27052025–2026 DermFeb 21

Which schools ARE having second looks? Which ones are for sure NOT having second looks?

Feb 21
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Vandy, Jeff, Iowa IS MedStar, Duke, Northwestern are NOT Cleveland Clinic you can message to set one up

Feb 21
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That duke rejection email 🤪

#26582025–2026 DermFeb 21

so unnecessary at this point lol

Feb 21
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Right, why are they sending us two rejections emails bruh

Feb 21
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1

anyone else disappointed by Duke interview day? felt residents and many faculty were not engaged at all >Nah for real. They also didn't address the elephent in the room regarding them losing their chair.> someone deleted my post but yeah felt th research room was particularly hard to read

#26122025–2026 DermFeb 21

> i felt this was the case at many top tier/high ranked institutions, they know derm is super competitive and we would all love to match there, they know they don't need to put in any effort...

Feb 21
2

Why did you find them not engaged? I don't mean this in a snarky way, but what were you expecting to be different? (Just trying to understand where you're coming from)

Feb 21
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not enthusiatic, not trying to sell their program, vibes felt like "you should be grateful you got an interview with us"

Feb 21
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Gotcha! I got different vibes. I got the laidback vibes tbh.

Feb 21
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I don't think it was laidback they just didn't gaf

Feb 21
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yeah totally agree with the not enthusiastic and not trying to sell their program at all - like this interview day really stood out among all my other interviews and was the first time I felt this

Feb 21
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yeah they seemed very uninterested, resident room was kinda awk

Feb 21
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Man I had such a different experience! Very interesting. I actually really liked it.

Feb 21
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If you like them so much maybe you should marry them

Feb 21
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lol I did like them! I'm just being honest. It sounds like we had different experiences. Maybe I caught them on a good day. Who knows.

Feb 21
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not enthusiatic, not trying to sell their program, vibes felt like "you should be grateful you got an interview with us"

Mar 7
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Gotcha! I got different vibes. I got the laidback vibes tbh.

Mar 7
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I don't think it was laidback they just didn't gaf

Mar 7
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yeah totally agree with the not enthusiastic and not trying to sell their program at all - like this interview day really stood out among all my other interviews and was the first time I felt this

Mar 7
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If you like them so much maybe you should marry them

Mar 7
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lol I did like them! I'm just being honest. It sounds like we had different experiences. Maybe I caught them on a good day. Who knows.

Mar 7
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Mentors said to avoid places with interim chairs or new chairs since their influence on a program is unpredictable and its better to go a place without turbulence. Do yall agree?

#26082025–2026 DermFeb 21

reasoning makes sense. You don't know what they'll change.

Feb 21
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I think it's a yellow flag for a program for the same reason, especially if the interim chair is from a different department too...

Feb 21
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>I'm looking at you Duke.

Feb 21
2

penn also getting a new chair

Feb 21
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a really amazing one. I wouldn't make your decision based on that

Feb 21
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penn chair is absolutely a positive

Feb 21
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penn also getting a new chair

Mar 7
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a really amazing one. I wouldn't make your decision based on that

Mar 7
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penn chair is absolutely a positive

Mar 7
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any tea about duke?>lost their chair, current chair is OB/GYN, inpatient is grueling

#24602025–2026 DermFeb 21

share more about the inpatient pls!

Feb 21
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Guys feel free to tell me if I'm being a neurotic asshole but I've had 8 interviews and in every single one I either began with the PD or chair. Is that just a coincidence or do you think it is intentional? I'm not the strongest of applicants and I don't have any connections to most of the places this happened so I didn't know if it was like the initial vibe check on my possibility of being there or not. I also understand how neurotic and annoying this prob is so tell me to stfu if you agree

#24352025–2026 DermFeb 21

the order of interview rooms is usually just based on the order people signed up on thalamus. so it means you tend to sign up quick to be the first candidate of the day for PD but doesnt mean anything in terms of match , I've noticed i've been towards the start for ones i was faster for

Feb 21
1

all applicants meet with PD and chair, i think order doesn't have an indication!

Feb 21
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did duke actually send cookies out

Feb 21
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I didn't get a cookie :(

Feb 21
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I al so did not get a cookie :(

Feb 21
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oh sad I did get one, but iti did come directly from the baker so maybe that messed with shipping!

Feb 21
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mine came today so they're probably still going out

Feb 21
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I didn't get a cookie :(

Mar 7
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I al so did not get a cookie :(

Mar 7
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oh sad I did get one, but iti did come directly from the baker so maybe that messed with shipping!

Mar 7
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mine came today so they're probably still going out

Mar 7
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am sure i will get flamed if this is dumb lol but do most derm programs not do second looks anymore? Have not heard anything about it from interviews, etc

#23602025–2026 DermFeb 21

I think a lot of them aren't anymore. I know MedStar and Duke aren't doing them. UConn does not either. Northwestern is also not hosting one.

Feb 21
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this is a great question, i was also wondering

Feb 21
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1

How was Duke's interview for anyone who had the first session on 12/9?

#20742025–2026 DermFeb 21

Hard research questions otherwise good

Feb 21
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what does hard research question entail? (not interviewing here just curious)

Feb 21
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I don’t think the questions were hard but the person asking research questions was hard to talk to

Feb 21
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POOP

Feb 21
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what does hard research question entail? (not interviewing here just curious)

Mar 7
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I don’t think the questions were hard but the person asking research questions was hard to talk to

Mar 7
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thoughts on Duke interview this week?

#20122025–2026 DermFeb 21

i botched it man /:

Feb 21
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why what happened :/

Feb 21
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they asked hard questions

Feb 21
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also feel like i botched it and vibes were not good like they didn't react positively to my answers 😭

Feb 21
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i didn't apply but what kind of hard questions did they ask youuu??

Feb 21
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I was asked "if you were a flavor of cream cheese, what flavor would you be and WHY" last year lol, caught me very offguard after the behavioral questions

Feb 21
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I didn't even know creamcheese had flavors. Idk how I would answer this LMAO, classic? Low calorie cuz im on a diet?

Feb 21
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dang is this what they meant by hard qeustions lol maybe weird is a better way to describe it hahah

Feb 21
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POOP

Feb 21
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Does Duke have a social event?

#18562025–2026 DermFeb 21

Monday 7:30PM EST>where do you see this? on thalamus?

Feb 21
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where do you see this bc I haven't heard/seen anything

Feb 21
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POOP

Feb 21
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everyone go outside and get some fresh air. whats wrong with yall

#18172025–2026 DermFeb 21

cackling

Feb 21
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shits cold af here (northeast)

Feb 21
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you should go outside instead of deleting someone else's words to silence them thnx

Feb 21
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weirdos

Feb 21
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POOP

Feb 21
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> honestly don't know, I picked Penn because of its name and ranking and defintely thought there would be more support for students interested in derm. Seems like HMS also isn't that supportive based on what's written below so idk what "top" schools support students interested in derm

Mar 21
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I will say that coming from a top school that isn't supportive can hurt you because if you reach out to other programs for research opportunities they will say that "Penn has an amazing dept work with them" and then we are also told not to do aways as it will hurt our institution name (prob because they think we will underperform)

Mar 21
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that's crazy, any other top schools telling their students not to do aways? do you guys tend to match good anyway?

Mar 21
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we do match well but I think it's because there's a ton of us - like we have double digit derm matches but also a ton don't match - lots of us are told to extend graduation as we are reapplying as med students rather than residents - also doesn't hurt the match rate that way lol - some of the ppl here come in with crazy good connections and exisiting research PIs, it's the reality of going to a top school, lots of competition and not enough opportunities despite there being already so many because too much interest. I have friends at HMS that also have been advised not to do aways prob the same for the T10

Mar 21
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duke specifically advises their students to do 2 aways (smart advisors) (actually that's new, and primarily student driven bc they've had consecutive years of students not matching)> yale also advised us not to do aways

Mar 21
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coming from a T10 also hurts when applying to mid-tier/lower-tier/community programs because they think that you won't come there (when some of us only have interviews at these programs)

Mar 21
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so true, coming from another T10 school here and people are not getting high numbers of interviews here despite being outstanding candidates in every respect, just think that a ton of programs assume we'll go to another top program so the mid/low tier programs are incredibly low yield. also not advised to do aways

Mar 21
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similar to the penn story, i won't say what school but also T10? when i reached out to other programs, they were like oh you go to X school, work with them, they are your best bet!

Mar 21
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ikr how many ii are you at? did your home offer you an interview?> i'm at 7II but I did 3 aways + home and networked! despite that one program telling me off. shouldve just left that program alone but i still applied and gave them a gold lol CLOWN move!

Mar 21
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bigger clown move is complaining when you have 7 interviews. Go prep?

Mar 21
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#cope! never complained. simply giving more insight into how top schools can "affect" you

Mar 21
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my sister (applying med school rn) also wants to do derm, do i tell her Penn is not the place for derm? Had no idea Penn was like that. She interviewed there and it is her first choice.

Mar 21
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